Cautela
Order instead of uncertainty.
Do you know which of your programs are AI, and which of them have to be disclosed? In one conversation Cautela produces your AI inventory, your policy and the training of your people, each statement with its reference in the Official Journal. Cautela is built for small and medium-sized businesses in Germany and Austria, and it works in German: the conversation, the training and the documents. This page explains it in English; we are glad to advise you in English as well.
- Price
- From €149 a year,
up to ten people - Language
- German
- Staff accounts
- None, one link is enough
- Your records
- Servers in Germany
Three quite different businesses. The same duty.
The garage that writes its emails with AI, and nobody ever wrote it down. The planning office whose team has been using ChatGPT for months, without announcement and without a rule. The online retailer with a chatbot the agency installed, for which the retailer is responsible all the same.
Since 2 August 2026 every chatbot has to make itself known as AI. No transitional period, no exemption for small businesses. And since February 2025, Article 4 of the AI Act has required measures that promote the AI literacy of your people; since 27 July 2026 expressly without a guarantee of a particular level. The duty stayed, the promise of a result went, and so the record counts.
Not a form.
A conversation.
You tell Cautela what runs in your business, in your own words. Speaking is enough, and you can type too. Every classification comes from a versioned rule set with a reference, not from a free judgement by an AI.
The conversation
About half an hour for a typical business. The uncomfortable question comes first: which of your programs are AI at all? The agency's chat widget, the image function in the graphics program, the text suggestions in the newsletter tool.
Inventory and classification
Every system with its purpose, your role, its risk class and the duties attached to it. A reference in every line. Where the information is not enough, Cautela says so and asks, instead of guessing.
The documents
The AI inventory, the AI policy for your people, tailored to the programs that really run in your business, and ready-made disclosure texts under Article 50. Available straight after the conversation.
Training, by link
No account, no password. Your staff get a link and start: six lessons held as a dialogue, around an hour in total, with a knowledge test at the end. Nobody passes by watching.
The record
One certificate per person with date, role, modules and test result, anchored in the training register. That is the part that counts when someone asks.
A warning notice is no protection.
A business is liable for the answers of its chatbot: so the Higher Regional Court of Hamm, Germany, in its judgment of 12 May 2026 (case no. 4 UKl 3/25; leave to appeal to the Federal Court of Justice granted, so not yet final). There is no fining provision of its own for Article 4. The reason small businesses take it seriously anyway is liability: if something goes wrong, the question is whether the business prepared its people, and whether it can show it.
What a real run brings to light: a trading business, nine programs in use, all in the house for years. Cautela found two disclosure duties nobody there knew about: the customer chat on the website and the advertising images generated with AI. That was a run of our own in August 2026, not a customer reference. The number is here because it shows what to look for.
Everything in one,
at a fraction of a consultancy.
An annual licence per company, tiered by training places per year, not by headcount: a business with 30 people of whom eight sit at a computer pays the small tier. No notice period. You can cancel up to the last day of the term, even straight after the conversation: you keep the documents, and the price stays the same. Four weeks before the licence ends we remind you.
- Conversation
- Inventory
- Classification
- Documents
- Training
- Certificate
Prices for the first year; from the second year on, €119, €239 and €470 for as long as the contract runs. From 51 people on request. All amounts net, plus VAT. Questions about your inventory and your duties are included in the licence, all year round.
What you want
to know now.
Six answers we would rather give before you ask than after you have bought.
Where does our data go?
Your staff's names, test results, the training register, your inventory and your documents stay on our servers in Germany. No external AI model receives them. Exactly one thing goes to the language model: the conversation in which you describe your programs.
How does Cautela reach its classifications?
From a versioned rule set that ties every risk class to a feature and a reference in the Official Journal. The language model conducts the conversation; it passes no judgements.
Does it replace a lawyer?
No, and our terms say so too. Cautela delivers a rule-based classification with a reference, so that you know what you are talking about. Where the individual case matters, Cautela expressly recommends legal advice.
What if the law changes?
The AI world changes every two to three weeks. On 27 July 2026 the EU reworded Article 4. Cautela is not a folder you fill once but a state that keeps up, and your people are trained each year on the law as it then stands.
A new program in the business?
Write to us. We add it to your inventory, and you see which duty is attached to it.
And if we do not use AI at all?
In our experience that is rarely right: translation tools, text suggestions in the newsletter program, the image function in the graphics program and the chat widget on the website are AI without saying so anywhere.
Cautela works in German. The conversation, the six training lessons, the documents it produces, the terms and the order form are all in German, because that is where our customers are today. If your business operates in Germany or Austria and your people read German, Cautela fits. If not, talk to us first: the callback and our advice are available in English, and we will tell you honestly whether it makes sense for you.
First, see whether it concerns you at all.
Seven questions, a few minutes, no email address. At the end you know which duties apply to your business and which do not. The quick check costs nothing. It is part of the German Cautela page and is in German.
Would you rather talk to someone? Pick a time and we will call you, in German or English and from a German number. No video link, nothing to install, and all you leave is your number.